Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Unthanks with brass

Finally, The Unthanks have released vol. 2 in their "Diversions"-series: "The Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band" (Rabble Rouser Music 2012).
We get old folk tunes with brass arrangements, never before recorded by The Unthanks, and several tunes from previous albums by The Unthanks (and Rachel Unthank & The Winterset) arranged for brass.

Even if i don´t jump for joy to all tunes here (a. o. the show version of "Queen of Hearts"), most of the music is absolutely beautiful. To cite what Adrian McNally writes in the liner notes: "Folk song and brass music may be different musical disciplines, but often both were designed to speak for and be spoken by the same people. Similar heartbeats, similar content". Sounds true!

The video below is "The King of Rome" (the album´s opening track) filmed at the Cambridge Folk Festival 2012.